laying off roost?!

[mpollock]

Advice needed! 2 part question:
I have 16 hens all the same age, all whom have started laying in the last month. I live in NH so it is very cold here right now. I have 6 laying boxes....and they use only 1. I find 10 eggs in it sometimes. One of my Orpingtons is going broody on me and kicking others out while they are trying to lay to sit on eggs. I need to break her, but how do I get my girls to use other boxes?

Second Part: I was finding eggs under the roost and today I observed one of my barred rocks climb onto the roost (about 8am) and lay off the top roost! Luckily I do deep litter method so the eggs aren't breaking, but I have 6 laying boxes....why is she roosting 6 feet in the air to lay!?!

Any advice is welcome!

 

[mommiesrcool]

Is there a removable divider for your nesting boxes? If so you could try that

 

[wf1992]

Put an egg in another box to start them off? I think they're always going to want to add to someone else's collection of eggs.

I home you get an answer on the roost laying, because I get eggs on the floor there sometimes too. But I've never seen it happen, so always assumed those were surprises or it was still dark or something.

 

[mpollock]

Put an egg in another box to start them off? I think they're always going to want to add to someone else's collection of eggs.

I home you get an answer on the roost laying, because I get eggs on the floor there sometimes too. But I've never seen it happen, so always assumed those were surprises or it was still dark or something.

That's what I thought about the roost laying until I watched her climb up and settle down and lay from up there!

 

[aart]

Put one fake egg in each nest.
Laying off the roost is just a confused new layer...she might not be comfortable going into a nest yet(was the favorite nest occupied when you saw this happen?)......the fake eggs can help that.

 

[mpollock]

That makes sense, and yes, there were 2 hens in the favorite box at this point so that may have been it. I'll get some of the wooden eggs.